America Says Goodbye Ex-Yanks, Family, Fans Attend Mantle’s Funeral

They came to celebrate Mickey Mantle’s heroism, these old Yankees, fans and family. And not just the golden moments from his Hall of Fame career, but his brave, final inning.

Baseball said farewell and thanks to “The Mick,” remembering his glory and flaws at a funeral Tuesday that drew tears from the overflow crowd - but also the kind of laughter that the Oklahoma country boy evoked with his wry humor.

“It occurs to me as we’re all sitting here thinking of Mickey, he’s probably somewhere getting an earful from Casey Stengel, and no doubt quite confused by now,” NBC broadcaster Bob Costas said in a warm and moving eulogy that frequently had laughter echoing off the walls of the Lovers Lane United Methodist Church.

Mantle was “the most compelling baseball hero of our lifetime,” Costas told the star-studded crowd that included acting commissioner Bud Selig, former New York Yankees teammates, the governors of three states and ordinary fans.

“And he was our symbol of baseball at a time when the game meant something to us that perhaps it no longer does,” he said.

About 1,200 people, some sitting on window sills, jammed the church for the nationally televised service for Mantle, who died Sunday of liver cancer at age 63.

The light mahogany casket, covered in white roses, sat in front of several other arrangements of flowers, including a 7-foot-tall floral representation of Mantle’s No. 7 with the tribute: “Mickey Mantle, the greatest of them all.”

Costas spoke of how a generation idolized Mantle not just for his tape-measure home runs and his speed, but also for his vulnerability that touched fans’ hearts.

“We knew there was something poignant about Mickey Mantle long before we knew what poignant meant,” he said. “We didn’t just root for him, we felt for him.

“He was our guy. When he was hot, we felt great. When he slumped or got hurt, we sagged a bit, too. We tried to crease our caps like him; kneel in an imaginary on-deck circle like him; run like him heads down, elbows up,” he said.

But Costas also spoke of Mantle’s courage and honesty, which showed itself last year as he acknowledged decades of alcoholism left his liver so damaged that he received a transplant on June 8 of this year.

At the end of his life, Mantle suffered pain that “wracked his body and his soul,” Costas said.

But then, he added, “Mickey Mantle rallied.”

He praised “the sheer grace of that ninth inning, the humility, the sense of humor, the total absence of self-pity, the simple eloquence and honesty to tell others to take heed of his mistakes.

“Our last memories of Mickey Mantle are as heroic as the first,” he said. “None of us, Mickey included, would want to be held accountable for every moment of our lives. But how many of us could say that our best moments were as magnificent as his?”

Mantle warned children earlier this summer not to follow his example, and Costas said the Yankees slugger understood the difference between a role model and a hero.

“The first, he often was not,” Costas said. “The second, he always will be.”

He also said that because of Mantle’s efforts regarding transplants, “organ donations are up dramatically across America.”

“And our last memories of Mickey Mantle are as heroic as the first,” he said.

Country artist Roy Clark then sang a moving rendition of “Yesterday When I Was Young” - a song that Mantle himself loved and had requested be sung at his funeral.

Mantle’s wife, Merlyn, held up well until Clark sang. Sobbing softly, she was supported by her three sons, Mickey Jr., David and Danny.

Former Yankees teammate Bobby Richardson gave the sermon, saying that Mantle died in peace because he had found the Lord.

“Mickey is in God’s Hall of Fame now,” Richardson said.

Pallbearers included former Yankees teammates Yogi Berra, Johnny Blanchard, Bill “Moose” Skowron, Whitey Ford and Bobby Murcer. After the service, they were whisked away in a limousine to the Sparkman-Hillcrest Funeral Home where Mantle was placed in a crypt alongside son, Billy, in private a ceremony.

Other guests at the church were Yankees’ boss George Steinbrenner, Reggie Jackson, comedian Billy Crystal and the governors of New York, Georgia and Texas.

But almost half the audience came from fans, one of whom doffed his Yankees cap as he slid into the pew.

They lined up outside the church starting in the early morning hours. Several slept in their car in the parking lot so they would be first.

One very special fan was Donn Dodd, who played high school baseball with Mantle in Commerce, Okla.

“Mick would probably be terribly embarrassed by what happened today,” Dodd said. “He would be dumbfounded so many people cared.”

For many, Mantle represented baseball’s golden age in the 1950s and 1960s, when he led the Yankees to 12 World Series. Many people weren’t Yankee lovers but they loved Mantle.

As the casket was taken from the church and placed in the hearse, two young boys stood along the curb wearing Yankees shirts. One held his hat over his heart. The other held a flower.

They didn’t get to see “The Mick” play. But it was clear they had heard of him.